Sutton skipper David Mitchell hailed ex-Tiffin School student Arun Harinath as key to securing his side’s first Surrey Championship Premier Division win of the season.

The opening weekend’s clash at Spencer was abandoned, but Sutton made the most of Saturday’s sunshine to beat Weybridge by six wickets at Cheam Road.

Sutton put the visitors into bat, and Surrey opener Harinath took 3-29 as they carded 201 off 48.1 overs.

In reply, new boy Luke Smith hit 68, and Gary Outram carried his bat for 90 as Sutton knocked off the runs inside 44 overs with only four wickets down.

Harinath, who recently signed a new one-year deal with his home county, has had his ups and downs at the Kia Oval and has barely featured for the first team this season.

But Mitchell is only too happy to have his star man in harness – for now.
Mitchell said: “Arun has his Surrey commitments, but he has always been in and around the squad.

“He had been bowling some off-spin for us last year, but he changed to a medium pace and it has done the trick.

“It’s not bad to have someone like Arun, who can come in and make a difference and it’s a sign of his ability that he can change his bowling style so effectively.”

He added: “It was nice to get our first win – we’d played well last weekend before the rain came, and we struggled with the 50-over format last year, in fact we did not win one 50-over game.”

Webridge skipper Joel Pope said: “We had them in a bit of trouble and felt we were unlucky with a few appeals, but ultimately we did not have enough runs on the board.

“You can’t really say it was down to rustiness because batsmen were getting caught out at long-on and long-off.”

To rub salt into the wound, Weybridge were deducted six points for failing to register Surrey youngster Jack Winslade – who recently signed a summer contract at the Kia Oval – properly and according to league rules.

“It was just an adminstrative error,” added Pope.

“Jack has been with us for a while and no-one really realised he had to be re-registered because of his summer contract.

“This sort of thing happens when you have volunteers running clubs and hopefully it does not cost us in the long run.”

He added: “Better to have the points deduction now than later in the season, when it may be too late to do anything about it.”

Weybridge host Reigate Priory on Saturday, Sutton go to current champions Wimbledon, with Mitchell confident of another winning performance.